December Daily™ 2010 | Reflections On The Process & One More Look At The Binding

i really love your DD concept and i am in the process of completing my book. (schedule is so hard with work and family, i really hope i can find some me time soon).

thanks Ali. you truly inspire a lot of us to document our lives for us and for our family.

God bless!

Thank you for posting your thoughts for us. I learned a few things also especially this being my first year. Next year I will buy a bigger album, didn't have enough room past the 25th like I had hoped. Seeing your full page photos was my favorite thing you did and I hope to do that next year too. It was so helpful and very inspiring being able to link up everyday and see everyone's pages that's what made me stay on top of it. Next year I might have it just be a December album without worrying about the dates. My family loves this album and it's still being passed around for everyone to see. I will pack it away when it gets returned. Thank you again Ali for coming up with this great album and sharing the journey with us. So happy that I followed this year.

Oh Ali,
i really really like the finished daily. I'm finished mine yesterday and hat the same issues with the binding. I'm taking red twine insead of binder rings and it worked fine but looking for another solution next year. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Marit
PS: you can look my finished book here:
http://tagfuertag.typepad.com/weblog/daily-december-2010/

Thanks for all the effort you made in guiding us(me!) through this process Ali. I still have the last few pages to finish. Today might be the day! =)

Perfect timing! I finished my 1st book today - woohoo! but also had to change from the rings to twine. I was just checking to see how you bound yours when I read your new post. This will help. Thank you. One issue I have had is the spacing of the holes. I followed your recommendations from the FAQs but I struggled getting the holes to match exactly from page to page, if that makes sense. I tried to measure and mark on the cardstock but had difficulty doing the same on the transparencies. I would love to know how you approached this. I understand that you probably want to be `done' with this project, so if you can't answer now, could you please consider addressing in DD 2011? Many thanks.

This is the first year that I made the album and I love how it turned out. Last year I took pictures but having the actual completed album is awesome. Thank you for the inspiration. Thanks for keeping up and posting your projects too - that helped me keep up!

hi ali! this is the first year (i've done DD with you since 2007) that i've finished the album in jan. woot! i've completed the prior years in nov, july, etc. and i think the simplicity of this years book made such a difference! with two little ones and working full time, much like you, i needed it to be easy this year. even with fewer embellishments, i still just love this album. and this year i journaled more, which i also love. also love the full page enlargements. may be addicted to that concept now...

binding was an issue for me too, although i am going with the 2.5 inch rings. really love your thought about someone making an album just for DD (talk to those house of 3 girls: that canvas album they make is awesome!).

have a wonderful day!
beth

perfect thanks;) wonderful job again for 2010!!

thank you for a month of motivation, incouragement and inspiration.

thank you for the extra info, it is always helpful. Loved this years simplicity, it stayed fun, not just another project that needed completing before Christmas.

I too undertook DD for the first time this year and am totally in love with my bulging album which I finished last week. I used a 7" x 9" D-ring file folder which I purchased at my High Street stationers, it coped beautifully with the first 25 days of the month but struggled with the last week and I had to create a closure from an old leather belt! It is groaningly full but I love that it is, it's chock full of memories and photos and is sure to be something that I will enjoy looking through in years to come.
I've enjoyed my DD so much that I have decided to start a new album capturing the highs and lows of 2011 month by month. Thank you for giving me the inspiration!

You make great points. I like most nº6 - wait and see.

Looks great Ali. I would love to see a thicker book (maybe Teresa Collins whose stuff I love) and more consistency as you had this year. I am very happy with mine but used varying pages and it was very labor intensive. Used your 6 x 8 page overlays but had to attach them to background sheets to fit my pages. Can't wait to see what you come up with next year. Thanks.

that would be great if someone could come up with an assortment of d-ring binders built to fit an album of this size. i love this size. it is what i have done for all these years now.
i always say this, but i mean it, thanks for the inspiration, ali. our family loves these books so much.

I loved seeing your December Daily pages each day and what you were doing and photographing along with the other links were helpful. I truely think it is a very precious memory and as you say will look forward to seeing it next Christmas and see how much the kids have grown. Thanks for inspiring so many of us. It's fun doing these things together even if it is remotely and most of us will never meet. There's support and encouragement out there and it makes the project fun.

I didn't do the DD, but i followed along with you. I love the way you finished up with your reflections on the whole process -- that is project management at it's best!

Ali, you always inspire me so much. I finished my DD album pages every few days and it was completed by the end of Dec. Like you I had a hard time with the binding. I am going with some Christmas "rope" I found. I don't mind this type of binding so that's okay. I do plan to do it different next year but wanted to combine your DD idea with Stephanie Ackerman's Countdown to Christmas kit. It turned out great. I need to take pictures and put them out so people can see it.

Your page templates made this year so much easier and I love the clean look and the versatility of the pages. Finished my book yesterday and love it. Looking forward to next year. Thanks for the inspiration!

I would LOVE to see 24 and 25...
and I guess I will jump in and try pages all 1 size next year!

Hi Ali. This was my very first try with the December Daily and it was a great experience. I did it ALL digital witch made it easy to stay on track and make a page a day and by january 2nd I ordered my photo book. That was the plan: one story and one page a day - only two days had two pages - and I kept on through all of december. I was easy because of your templates they made it easy for me.
Also a wonderful thing to follow how december turned out "around the world" :o) Thanks for sharing and keeping up posting every day.